Pokemon of the Week #4: Trevenant

I for one welcome our tree overlords

Hello Hat Lovers!

For week four of Pokemon of the Week we’ll be looking at Trevenant. Trevenant is a Ghost / Grass type from generation six.Trevenant is a Pokemon that hasn’t seen a ton of play in VGC 2014, but it has a solid Pokemon to use.

Much of what Trevenant does can be done by Gourgeist as well. Of the two, Trevenant has weaker defences but has a higher attack stat as well as the best Ability between the two of them. These make Trevenant a strong choice between the two Pokemon.

Trevenant gets a plethora of status moves and a great Ability that makes it a major pain if you can’t get rid of it quickly. Being a Ghost type, Trevenant can wall standard Kangaskhan and cripple it with status moves.

Trevenant is also a tree. I’m sure you noticed that, but I felt like saying it just to be sure.Abilities:Trevenant has three Abilities: Natural Cure, Frisk, and Harvest.

Natural Cure will remove any status conditions from Trevenant whenever it switches out. This lets it deal with Will-O-Wisp but Trevenant has a better Ability to use.

Frisk gives you useful information when you send in Trevenant, but Gourgeist has this Ability as well and has better stats for it.

Harvest is the reason to use Trevenant over Gourgeist. Every turn Trevenant will have a 50% chance to regenerate a berry it has consumed. If the sun is active this chance becomes 100%. Using Sitrus Berry with this strategy makes Trevenant impossible to get rid of unless its OHKO’d.

Base Stats:85 / 110 / 76 / 65 / 82 / 56

Trevenant’s base stats aren’t fantastic. It has a good attack stat and its defences are decent enough. What makes Trevenant worthwhile is its typing and Ability.

Attacks:

For offense, Trevenant has Horn Leech, Wood Hammer, Shadow Claw and Phantom Force. Horn Leech is the weaker of the Grass moves and heals Trevenant, while Wood Hammer is stronger but deals recoil. Both attacks are viable it all depends on what you want Trevenant to accomplish. Shadow Claw is a generic Ghost stab. Phantom Force removes Trevenant from the field for a turn and goes through Protect.

The main selling point of Trevenant’s move pool is the status moves it learns. We have Leech Seed, Will-O-Wisp and Trick Room to play with. Leech Seed and Will-O-Wisp deal residual damage while either healing Trevenant or halving the opponent’s attack. These moves are what let Trevenant deal with Kangaskhan so easily.

This Trevenant is what I would consider to be a standard set. Wood Hammer OHKOs 252/44 Rotom-W, but they’ll be faster and threaten Will-O-Wisp. For this reason you may want to just stick Horn Leach and focus on healing. Phantom Force removes Trevenant from the field so the opponent has to sit through another turn of Leech Seed and Burn before they can get an attack on you.

Will-O-Wisp and Leech Seed cripple Kangaskhan and put pressure on attackers that can’t KO you such as Garchomp.

The defence allows you to survive Adamant 252 Tyranitar’s Crunch 100% of the time. 4 Speed goes farther than it would on something like Rotom because Trevenant has that unique base 56 speed that puts it ahead of Azumarill and Mawile without giving it hope of catching up to the rest of the format. The Special Defence looks like it was just what was leftover but it prevents Gengar from every OHKOing Trevenant with Shadow Ball.

Trevenant is a solid Trick Room setter due to its immunity to Fake Out and good bulk. Once Trick Room is up Trevenant can start burning things. Phantom Force is a cool move in Trick Room because you can use it on the last turn of Trick Room to get two turns off of the field.

Teammates:Trevenant needs partners that can get rid of Fire type attacks. Rotom-W and Rotom-H can take on most Fire types in the format and come out on top. Dark types that resist fire such as Tyranitar and Hydreigon will be able to deal with Fire while also taking care of opposing Ghost types that threaten Trevenant.

Dark types are also a big threat, Fighting types like Lucario and Scrafty can deal with these Pokemon fairly easily.

Mega-Charizard-Y brings Drought to the table, so Harvest will activate every turn.

If Trevenant is using Trick Room you’ll want slow Pokemon to go with the strategy as well as a partner that can help set up such as Scrafty. Scrafty also provides Intimidate support, which Trevenant appreciates greatly. I can see Trevenant working on a Charizard/Mawile team that is composed of fast Pokemon that work with Charizard and slow Pokemon that work in and out of Trick Room.

Whichever Pokemon are paired with Trevenant must be willing to give up the chance to use Sitrus Berry, as Trevenant won’t function well without it.

Counters:The easiest way to beat Trevenant is to KO it with Fire. Mega Charizard, Rotom-H, Talonflame, and Pyroar all threaten the OHKO on Trevenant and Trevenant can’t do much in return.

Dark types such as Tyranitar, Bisharp, and Hydreigon will deal a ton of damage to Trevenant, but the physical ones won’t enjoy a Will-O-Wisp.

Mega Venusaur will handle Trevenant with ease, it doesn’t like being burnt but Sludge Bomb will deal a ton of damage and Venusaur has Synthesis to heal itself.

Aerodactyl prevents Trevenant from healing with Unnerve and can deal good damage with Sky Drop.

Taunt shuts down Trevenant, just make sure not to use a Pokemon weak to its stab moves.

ConclusionTrevenant is certainly an interesting Pokemon, and one that shouldn’t be written off. Like most Grass types, it can be a win condition on its own once the opponent loses their way of OHKO’ing it. Be sure to watch out for it, and if you face be sure to keep your counter around. The last thing you want is to face a Trevenant that keeps eating Sitrus Berries while you hopelessly hack away at it.